Segal was born to Jewish parents in Iaşi, Romania, and studied at the Berlin Academy from 1892.

[2] After studying in Paris and Italy, he eventually moved to Berlin in 1904 where he exhibited his work with Die Brucke and Der Blaue Reiter, two leading German expression groups.

During the war, Switzerland became a refuge for many artists like Segal, and whilst he was there he exhibited some of his work with Arp and Dada in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.

Because of his Jewish background he was prevented from exhibiting his work in Germany,[3] and so in 1933 he moved to Palma, Majorca and then London, where he set up another school with his daughter Marianne.

Segal was firstly a painter, and his early work was heavily influenced by impressionism and neo-impressionism.